Is my country's biology low standard?

[Mafer]

Well, I am in secondary school. But now, I am just learning about bones, vertebrae, and all that, is that slow? Where can I get more information?

 

[brewnog]

Well it depends what you're actually learning (people at university learn about bones, and so do people at nursery). I suppose it also depends at what age you start secondary school, and by what you're comparing your country to.

 

[Moonbear]

In addition to what brewnog mentioned, it also would depend on what else you've been learning about. One topic out of a biology curriculum isn't going to say much about what you'll be learning overall. There's quite a bit of flexibility about what order things are taught in biology, so you can't always compare what you're class is covering to what someone else is covering until you're completely done with the class.

 

[hitssquad]

TIMMS data, 2003

Is my country's biology low standard?

Your nation's 2003 TIMSS science attainment score might tell you something. Is your nation listed here?:
http://nces.ed.gov/timss/TIMSS03Tables.asp?figure=6&Quest=3

• Singapore 578
  Chinese Taipei 571
  South Korea 558
  Hong Kong 556
  Estonia 552
  Japan 552
  Hungary 543
  Netherlands 536
  United States 527
  Australia 527
  Sweden 524
  Slovenia 520
  New Zealand 520
  Lithuania 519
  Slovak Republic 517
  Belgium (Flemish) 516
  Russian Federation 514
  Latvia 512
  Scotland 512
  Malaysia 510
  Norway 494
  Italy 491
  Israel 488
  Bulgaria 479
  Jordan 475
  
  Average Score 473
  
  Moldova 472
  Romania 470
  Serbia 468
  Armenia 461
  Iran 453
  Macedonia 449
  Cyprus 441
  Bahrain 438
  Palestinian Authority 435
  Egypt 421
  Indonesia 420
  Chile 413
  Tunisia 404
  Saudi Arabia 398
  Morocco 396
  Lebanon 393
  Philippines 377
  Botswana 365
  Ghana 255
  South Africa 244

 

[Monique]

That's interesting, these countries have better scores than the US?

Singapore 578
Chinese Taipei 571
South Korea 558
Hong Kong 556
Estonia 552
Japan 552
Hungary 543
Netherlands 536

 

[brewnog]

All of those I can believe, Hungary is a surprise though...

 

[hitssquad]

Monique, all of those countries have higher British-relative national IQs than does the U.S. (except possibly Estonia which I don't have IQ data for):
http://www.childrenofmillennium.org/science.htm

• Singapore 103
• Chinese Taipei 100
• South Korea 106
• Hong Kong 107
• Estonia ?
• Japan 105
• Hungary 99
• Netherlands 102
• United States 98

 

[selfAdjoint]

All of those I can believe, Hungary is a surprise though...

Are you kidding? von Neumann, Erdos, many others?...

 

[Kamataat]

Monique, all of those countries have higher British-relative national IQs than does the U.S. (except possibly Estonia which I don't have IQ data for):
http://www.childrenofmillennium.org/science.htm

• Singapore 103
• Chinese Taipei 100
• South Korea 106
• Hong Kong 107
• Estonia ?
• Japan 105
• Hungary 99
• Netherlands 102
• United States 98

Among children in Estonia, it's 99 for 7-11 year olds and 100.2 for 12-18 year olds. Sources: 1
and 2 .

- Kamataat

 

[brewnog]

Are you kidding? von Neumann, Erdos, many others?...

What, a couple of dead mathematicians are supposed to influence a country's teaching ability?

 

[hitssquad]

Since Hungary only recently adopted a market economy, selfAdjoint, and its per-cap GDP-PPP http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/hu.html#Econ, the high science-educational attainment being achieved by its 8th-graders might indeed reasonably be considered surprising.

 

[selfAdjoint]

Hungarian mathematical brilliance

What, a couple of dead mathematicians are supposed to influence a country's teaching ability?

They came from Hungary, and many others with them. When this clutch of Hungarian geniuses (not including Erdos) landed in the US during WWII, they were called "The Martians" because they were so eerily special. Now, these folks were all Jewish, so the Jewish Hungarian community is where to look, but during the 20th century before the nazis, there was considerable intermarriage as the smarter Jews moved out of their rural shtels and into the cities.

Since Hungary only recently adopted a market economy, selfAdjoint, and its per-cap GDP-PPP is only $13,900, the high science-educational attainment being achieved by its 8th-graders might indeed reasonably be considered surprising.

The notion that student brilliance and achievement is a function of market capitalism is just ludicrous, when you look at the very statistics hitssquad exhibited. Why isn't the most market-intensive country in the world at the top of the list? When do you stop with special pleading and look at the actual forces in play?

 

[hitssquad]

Among children in Estonia, it's 99 for 7-11 year olds and 100.2 for 12-18 year olds. Sources: 1
and 2 .

That's 98 and 100.2. The figure of 99 is the result of an averaging of the later (2003) 98 result and the earlier (2002) 100.2 result ("...and 99 based on the combined results for two studies;" from your first reference).

Anyway, thank you for the data.

 

[hitssquad]

The notion that student brilliance and achievement is a function of market capitalism is just ludicrous, when you look at the very statistics hitssquad exhibited.

Which of those countries has not adopted a market economy?

Why isn't the most market-intensive country in the world at the top of the list?

And why doesn't SAT score predict grade-point average among Harvard students? The answer for both is, "That list is the top of the list, and there is more than one factor involved."

 

[jai6638]

i wonder why is India not on that list...

didnt know Slovenia had citizens with such a high IQ...


thanks for the data... interesting to see how the countries rank..

 

[brewnog]

They came from Hungary, and many others with them. When this clutch of Hungarian geniuses (not including Erdos) landed in the US during WWII, they were called "The Martians" because they were so eerily special. Now, these folks were all Jewish, so the Jewish Hungarian community is where to look, but during the 20th century before the nazis, there was considerable intermarriage as the smarter Jews moved out of their rural shtels and into the cities.

But what's all this got to do with teaching?

 

[Joel]

But what's all this got to do with teaching?

Rolemodels and values, perhaps?

Here in Finland we have this huge IT company, Nokia. Sure, they are pouring money into pure research, but non the less I'd say they also influence socially.

 

[jai6638]

Rolemodels and values, perhaps?

I'd say they also influence socially.

how...?

 

[Joel]

how...?

Well, in many ways, for example: by providing sources of aspiration for students, maybe special founds and chairs for researchers, a respect from the general population towards the field and maybe students therefore get more support from their parents, etc. All this may lead to more competition and better average results.

 

[Mafer]

well, mine is MAlaysia
very low isn't it

 

[1123581321]

Monique, all of those countries have higher British-relative national IQs than does the U.S. (except possibly Estonia which I don't have IQ data for):
http://www.childrenofmillennium.org/science.htm

• Singapore 103
• Chinese Taipei 100
• South Korea 106
• Hong Kong 107
• Estonia ?
• Japan 105
• Hungary 99
• Netherlands 102
• United States 98

The US is behind because:
1. Parents don't care
2. Students dont' care
3. Tenure is stupid (if you are a good teacher, you need not worry about being fired)
4. Dumbing down stuff to make dumb kids feel good about themselves
5. Politics
6. "new" math
and the list goes on.


while some schools are good, innercity sucks for the most part, and while some parents care about their childerns success, some don't. for example, one classmate of mine received 100 dollars for getting all his grades in the 70% range. If i dropped below 90%, i would not get anything, rather i would be punished. I could on and on.

I kinda got off topic, i didn't even mention bio, and i don't even know what country you are from, but i don't care, because off-topicness is a habit of mine. People take sciences a lot less seriously than they should, i don't understand how my school puts more into reading (the elementry part, i am in high), while most kids know how to read by the 4th or 5th grade, so why can't somethig else take that time? if you can't read well by 5th grade, that is your problim, not everyone elses. besides, the only people who are going to use classes like 'reading' are future reading teachers.

Amazing how i turn a simple question into politics, isn't it

Fibonacci

 

[Dynamis]

I wonder what happened to Canada on that list